Electoral Registration and Administration Bill

Lord Hart of Chilton Excerpts

Monday 14th January 2013 Lords Chamber

Tabled by

[Lord Hart of Chilton]

28A: After Clause 5, insert the following new Clause—
“Amendment of Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Act 2011
In section 10 of the Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Act 2011, in subsection (3), leave out from “(a)” to “and” and insert “not before 1st October 2018”.”

[The Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster (Lord Hill of Oareford)]

My Lords, as I think everyone already knows, I have received advice from the Public Bill Office that Amendment 28A in the name of the noble Lord, Lord Hart of Chilton, is inadmissible because it is not relevant to the Bill. It is therefore my duty, under paragraph 8.56 of the Companion, to draw the attention of the House to that advice and I readily do so. My noble friend Lord Strathclyde placed a copy of the advice in the Library on 31 October last year and I wrote an open letter to the party and group leaders, attaching the advice, earlier today. That advice from our clerks is clear and unequivocal and, as the Companion requires, I ask the House to endorse it.

It is rare that we find ourselves in this position and I therefore hope it will help for me to explain what happens next. We are, essentially, in the hands of the noble Lord, Lord Hart of Chilton. There is no separate Motion or vote on the question of admissibility. When I sit down, it is for the noble Lord, Lord Hart of Chilton, to decide whether to move his amendment in the light of the sense of the House. When my predecessors have been in this position—and that has not been often; just three times since 1999—the amendment has, on each occasion, not been moved. If the noble Lord, Lord Hart, chooses to move his amendment, debate will follow and, no doubt, a Division. That Division will be on both the question of admissibility and on the substance of the amendment. For those of us who want to endorse the Clerk’s advice, the way to do so is to vote “Not Content” at the end of the debate for the sole and sufficient reason that we have been advised that the amendment is not relevant to the Bill and therefore inadmissible, irrespective of the substance of the amendment. Having explained that, I have to say that I regret that we find ourselves in this position at all.

My noble friend Lord Howell of Guildford asked a question in an earlier debate on this subject: why could the noble Lord, Lord Hart of Chilton, and his supporters not find a way to put their substantive proposal before the House that was consistent with our rules? A Private Member’s Bill could certainly have been drafted and delivered to the Commons between October and today. I very much regret that instead of using the procedurally sound approaches that are available, the noble Lord and other noble Lords who have put their names to the amendment are asking us to set aside our rules, which I suggest is the wrong thing to do.

The last thing I want to say is that for the House to consider this amendment today is the wrong thing to do in principle as well as in particular. The House itself is of course the only authority that can decide on the admissibility of an amendment. The Clerk’s role is to advise, and the House is the arbiter. We are self-regulating. But our system of self-regulation is based on the very few rules which we have set for ourselves in the Companion. It means that only we can enforce our rules; it does not mean that we do not have any. The Companion is clear that on this issue of the admissibility of amendments,

“it is expected that this advice will be taken”—

that is, the advice of the clerks.

It would be unwise for us to get into a situation where we try to change referee when we think that it is expedient. The amendment is not relevant to the Bill because the clerks say so, in accordance with the precedent. It is they and they alone whom we have entrusted with advising us impartially in these circumstances. Over the past week, I have looked at the precedent and, on every occasion that I can find in the files, the House has endorsed the clerks’ advice on the admissibility of an amendment. Although I am relatively new to this House, I care very much for our culture, including the courteous, consensual way that we have of doing our business. I think that it enhances our work, role and reputation as a revising Chamber. That culture depends on our respect for our rules and, on certain very rare occasions, on the professional referee in the form of the clerks. If we choose to set aside the clerks’ advice on this occasion, why not tomorrow? Why not next week?

Today, we are taking a decision that is not just about a particular issue but potentially about the whole way that we work. If the noble Lord, Lord Hart of Chilton, moves his amendment, I ask Members around the House this afternoon to set aside their views on the substance of the amendment and to endorse the clerks’ unequivocal advice. It is for the House to decide which is more important for us. I choose the latter and, if it comes to it, I will therefore be voting “Not Content”. This is a difficult moment for the House, but there is someone here who can help us out of our difficulty, and that is the noble Lord, Lord Hart of Chilton. At this last moment, it is still possible for him to rescue us from our difficulty and to say, “Not moved”. I call on him to do so.

[Lord Hart of Chilton]

My Lords, I should like to make one preliminary point which is to repeat that, in intending moving this amendment, as I do, I intend no disrespect to the clerks, for whom I have great admiration. Of course, I have written to tell them that. However, there is a serious, genuine difference of opinion about admissibility, which I believe should be subject to the view of this self-regulating House.

Accordingly, I rise to move the amendment tabled in my name, and in the names of the noble Lords, Lord Kerr of Kinlochard, Lord Rennard, and Lord Wigley, whom I thank for their support. The effect of the amendment would be to postpone the review of parliamentary constituency boundaries for one electoral cycle, and similarly delay the reduction in the number of Westminster seats from 650 to 600. It would ensure that the 2015 general election is contested on the basis of current boundaries. It would also provide a window of time to address the current deficiencies in the electoral register and the likely impact on its accuracy and completeness from the introduction of individual electoral registration. As the building block on which boundary reviews are being conducted, the status of the electoral register is fundamental to our system of representative democracy.

--- Later in debate ---

[A noble Lord]

The noble Lord does not have to reply.

[Lord Hart of Chilton]

Well, I shall. The relevance comes as a result of the Boundary Commission’s work deciding numbers and constituencies upon the raw data from the electoral register. As I have said, if the electoral register is wrong and produces wrong data then the Boundary Commission and its findings in terms of constituencies and numbers will also be wrong. That is the relevance.

[Lord Forsyth of Drumlean]

My Lords, I apologise for getting the procedure wrong. My point was rather similar to my noble friend’s. The noble Lord has given by way of response, as a justification for riding a coach and horses through our procedures, an argument about the Bill and its provisions. What is at stake here is not whether his opinion is different from the Clerk’s, but that our convention has been that we accept the Clerk’s advice. Can he explain why he is prepared to ride roughshod over that, with all the precedents that it creates and the difficulties that it will cause for the House, which is nothing whatever to do with the substance of the Bill?

[Lord Hart of Chilton]

I explained, I hope, a moment ago why what I am saying is relevant to the particular proposals of the Bill. It is for the House to decide its procedure. In the sense that I have found it completely compelling that it is relevant, it is for the House to decide, in due course, what the outcome of the debate should be. If the view of the House is that what I have said is irrelevant, out of scope, nothing to do with the Bill at all, then the voting will take place accordingly. If, however, there are people——and I suspect there are many—who agree with me then they will vote to the contrary.

[Lord Rennard]

The four Members from different parts of the House who signed the amendment may all have slightly different arguments to make about why we each support it, but we are all agreed that the electoral register on which the current boundary review is taking place is not really fit for that purpose and that the current review of boundaries should therefore be postponed.

This issue was the subject of fierce debate during the lengthy passage of the Parliamentary Voting Systems and Constituencies Bill, with many noble Lords saying that it was not fit for purpose then. However, most of us relied on the best evidence available at the time that the electoral register contained the details of 92% of the people who should be included on it. Since then, however, work done by the Electoral Commission, commissioned and paid for by the Cabinet Office, shows that across the country, only about 82% of the names that should be included on the register are presently on it and that there are wide variations between different areas. For example, in the London Borough of Lambeth, only about 73% of the names that should be there are on the register.

This electoral register provides the basis for boundary reviews, and it is now clear that, if we want to have equal-sized constituencies, we must have an electoral register for which every possible effort has been made to make it as complete and accurate as possible, and that special efforts must be made to tackle underregistration in some areas if that objective is to be achieved.

--- Later in debate ---

[Lord Taylor of Holbeach]

It is indisputable that the amendment is inadmissible. The House may overrule that, but it is inadmissible. The other issue is the substance of this amendment. The noble Lord the Leader of the House also explained that we would have to resolve both issues in a single vote. I would like to remind the House of just that. If the noble Lord, Lord Hart, wishes to press this matter to a vote, and noble Lords are inclined to support him, they will be forced to decide what their greater priority is: to support the substance of the amendment, and ignore the advice of the clerks or to uphold the advice of the clerks on inadmissibility and therefore vote to defeat this amendment.

If the noble Lord insists on pressing his amendment, I am clear where I stand. I will seek to uphold the advice of the clerks. I will therefore be voting against this amendment, and I urge all noble Lords who value the customs and practice of this place, from whatever part of the House they come, to do likewise.

[Lord Hart of Chilton]

My Lords, I have listened carefully to all the arguments put in this debate. I am afraid that I do not accept what the noble Lord has just said. I wish to test the opinion of the House and, in doing so, I repeat that there is no disrespect to the clerks. This is a genuine difference of opinion, for which this House must take the decision.